Prelude to War: Before the Empire
by Writheheart
Summary: In a world ravished by Gods and war, love and hope was nonexistant. That was during the time of the Empire. But what about before the Empire? What of their pasts?


_**Writheheart: This is to keep me sane. While I only have one week of Driver's Ed, I'm going insane. This is Manah's past. I've based it mostly on theories. As you have noticed I have kept the concept of Manah being abused. But have tossed away the ideal of Manah hating Seere, she at least owes him some love for "killing" her with the Golem. So in this** **ficlet, Manah and Seere are very, very close. I have also noted that if Manah was never possessed she would be around Caim's age, since she **is **the ruler of the Empire. I have also noted Seere must have been around the same age if he never made a pact with the Golem, so they are six, since this was before the rise of the Emipre. Any confusion send me a message and I'll try to set things straight. No flames. Enjoy! Disclaimer: Look in my profile. I hate writing disclaimers.**_

* * *

"_No. This is just the beginning. A tiny ripple has just been born in the world that surrounds them. One day, that ripple will grow into a large wave, and it will swallow even them." – Xenosaga, Nephilim _

**_Zankokuna Tenshi Youni – Manah & Seere _**

_Watashi ni kaeri nasai kioku wo tadori_

_Yasahisa to yume no minamoto e_

_Moichido hoshi ni hikare umareru tame ni_

_Tamashii no rufuran_

Manah sang, doodling in a sketch book. It was a picture of a winged woman; fangs peaked from opened lips as she seemed to screech. A tail was drawn from her posterior, her clawed fingers curled inward, almost as if the woman was about to strangle some one. She placed her charcoal pencil down and gently smeared the coal around to create shadows, _her _shadows. Manah's book had other drawing, pictures of her mother dying many painful deaths, burned by a dragon, drowned by a dyad, crushed by Gods. Her twin brother, Seere, was in there, too. He was drawn dressed in his soft fawn boots, shirt and pants.

"Manah!" A plaintive voice called. Manah looked up and saw a light blond head run towards her. She snapped her sketch book close and shoved it under a dead tree's stump, shortly followed by the charcoal pencil. Seere came over the crest of the hill, an armload of cherry blossom twigs in his frail arms. He waved at Manah and began to run to her, dropping blossoms and twigs as he rushed to his twin sister.

"Manah! Look! I've brought you flowers!" Seere cried, dropping to his knees and holding a fistful of the twigs. Manah took the flowers in and placed them in her apron. The light pink / white blossoms gently complemented Manah's lacy, white apron that the lady next door made for her sixth birthday. Manah smiled gently at her beloved brother and winced as she rubbed her sore cheek were a green and yellow tinged bruise the size of a fist. Seere frowned and gently caressed the bruise with ivory pale fingers. Manah captured Seere's hands in her own.

"Seere, I never blamed you. Not once. You're always there for me. That's all that matters. Please, let me weave the flowers in your hair. You'd look so pretty!" Seere nodded his head and sat in front of Manah. Manah grabbed a handful of the twigs and shed the branches of the flowers. She gently took the flower in her palm and began to braid her bother's frothy, silky hair, weaving the beautifully delicate flowers in his fair hair.

"I heard you went to the Temple of the Dark One today. Momma hurt you because of that, didn't she?" Seere queried quietly. Manah stopped braiding his hair and placed her head between her twin's shoulder blades.

"Yes, indeed I did, brother. Something called to me. They said they would protect me. They promised." Manah explained as she shed more flowers off their respective twigs. Seere let out a dry sob. He took Manah's hands and brought them to his face, so Manah could feel his tears – tears for her. Manah hugged her only collaborator tightly from behind and gently kissed the back of his neck. Seere's tears came faster.

"Brother! Stop! I promise I won't again! Please stop crying!" Manah wailed, her own tears coming from her eyes, dripping from her baby fat cheeks. Seere heaved a sob and turned to face his sister. He reached his hands up and caught one of Manah's tears and brought it to his lips. His pink tongue darted out and licked the tear of Manah. Seere peered up at his sister, bewilderment written on his delicate, porcelain-doll like face.

"It's salty…real tears. Manah, why do you cry? I've never seen you cry before!" Seere exclaimed as more of Manah's tears dropped on to his face and cheeks. Manah closed her eyes and dropped her head, shamefaced.

"I cry because I don't want to hurt anymore. They promised me that I would have no more pain. They promised me I would be safe. Please, Seere, let me go back. I want to feel safe!" Manah howled as her tears burst anew. Seere peered up at Manah. He gripped her wrist tightly from his spot in her lap.

"Manah, only if I can come with you." Seere demanded seriously. Manah raked Seere with surprise and smiled. She kissed her brother's ivory pale forehead and ran her fingers through his hair, gently tearing out the delicate blossoms. Manah looked at the crushed blossoms letting off their soothing aroma and gently blew them from her palm. To Manah, the blossoms were just like people in so many ways.

_**Blossoms are like people.**_

**_People can be pulled from their parents._**

**_Just like blossoms are torn from their stems._**

**_ People's hopes, dreams and souls can be crushed. _**

**_Just like a petal beneath a child's fist._**

Manah gripped Seere's hand in her own. They were outside the Dark One's Temple. It was made of pure black stones. Obsidian stained glass windows gently sloped the entire three layers of the temple. Two imposing blood-red double doors led inside to the large church room with ebony benches and a large ebony statuette of the Dark One.

The twins entered the church, walked to the statue and bowed. Manah took two twigs from her velvet red dress and gently kissed the bloodstained blossom – her blood. She placed one twig to the Northwest and another to the Northeast, the ends crossing. From the dress, Manah drew a blood-red teardrop jewel and tossed it in the center of the two blossoms. Once the teardrop jewel hit the cold, black stone, the blossoms caught aflame.

"_Finally, a willing host. And someone so young and naïve. Poor child, seduced to believe I would help you! Ha, ha!"_A dark voice thundered and echoed. A dark figure came from the statue, he was pitch black with a forked tongue, he had red eyes and devilish claws. Manah began to whimper as the claws descended on her neck. Seere was thrown back against the church walls, he felt his head crack open and blood poured from his skull. His eye sight was blurry, he was loosing consciousness.

"Manah." He whispered hoarsely. Then he felt the ground shift, he felt himself fall into the earth. His line of vision was fringed by blackness and it grew larger. He began to shiver, unintelligible words flowed from his mouth. Tears flowed from his eyes as he though of his sister being alone with Lucifer himself. He remembered the look of horror on his beloved sister's face as the creature that was the devil grasped a hand on her ivory neck. Seere curled in a fetal position and let the tears flow freely down his face.

Momma would blame Manah for Seere's disappearance, if Manah survived Satan's wrath. Momma would abuse Manah more than ever, _really _hurt her. Maybe even kill her. Seere remembered that one day when he was hurt, Manah was blamed for Seere's broken wrist. Manah held Momma's bruises for three months. Seere had tried to stop his Momma, but Momma told him Manah needed to be punished for not protecting Seere. And Manah had never blamed him, not once.

Manah and Seere had done everything together, bathe – even to this day – together, sing together, dress together and sleep together. They had picked cherry blossom twigs together and weaved indigo violets and white lilies into each others hair. They had explored the small grotto of trees in their backyard together and found a small fawn there. Together they had snuck coarse bread and bowls of water to the fawn with the broken leg for months.

Seere's sobs echoed as they grew in octaves. His tears would _not _stop, they poured from his glass green eyes as he thought of his red-eyed sister, her eyes full of knowing and grief. The knowingness of her mother's cruelty and the grief of the hurt Momma inflicted on her.

"**_Why you cry, youngling?" _**A rumbling voice murmured. Seere peered up between his long, tear stained lashed and gasped. Lording over him was a creature of stone, dirt and clay. It was one of those ancient legdents and old wives tales, a Golem. Seere closed his eyes and lay flat on the dirt below him. The Golem poked him in the belly.

"**_You need help. Pact. Pact now." _**The Golem ordered. Seere blinked up at the Golem. If he _did _make a pact with the Golem he could _save _Manah! He nodded his head and placed his hand over his heart. His hand began to sink into his chest as he reached for his untainted soul. With a cry of pain a glowing orb of glass green roved his palms. He placed it on the Golem's leg as the Golem's white soul entered Seere's frail body. He stood up and looked for the pact mark. He pulled his shirt up and peered at his pact-tattooed chest. His entire body was covered in delicate black ink. Time was his sacrifice. And he, like the ravished earth, would live forever, staying six. He looked at his hand and peered at the Golem.

"I'm the Little Hero!" Seere proclaimed as he scaled the large Golem. The Golem laughed a rock laugh as the child sat on the precipice of the Golem's head. Seere looked at the strange coliseum where the devil had placed him. He _would _save his sister, even if he had to give up his own life.

_**Just like the earth forever more,**_

**_He shall live like mortar and stone._**

**_Time shall move forward and never look back,_**

_** But he shall live in the past forever more.**_

_**Such is the curse of the naïve child,**_

_**Who proclaims himself the "Little Hero"**_

When the Golem took him home, he found Manah laying in their shared trundle bed. Bruises covered her ivory pale skin as she held a troubled sleep. Seere crawled into next to her and kissed her cheek and buried his face between his twin's shoulder blades. His tears came faster than ever as he looked at his sister's bruises.

A single tear rolled down his pale cheek and fell onto one of Manah's bruises. The tear dispersed into hundreds of little droplets and spread around the bruise. To Seere's amazement the bruise began disappear in a glean of green. Seere smiled and stroked his sister's cheek. He was a healer, he was a protector. And his fallen angel was his sister.

"You never blamed me, not once. I won't fail you, Manah, not this time." Seere swore and laid back down on the soft down bed. His mother would never lay another hand on Manah again, never. Seere would protect instead of hide and heal instead of hurt. He knew Manah was possessed by Satan himself, and Seere would protect his sister from both Momma and the devil. He was strong enough now.

He _was_ the Little Hero after all.

_**Just like the witches on the pyre,**_

_** She is accused of heresy and burned beneath fire.**_

_** Possessed by Lucifer, High Lord of Hell,**_

**_And protected by the Archangel Gabriel._**

_** The daughter of a geisha, and ward of hell,**_

**_ She must choose to love or repel. _**

"Try what you will. I cannot be defeated." Manah intoned in monotone. Momma looked down at her bastard child and scowled at her. The girl's eyes held that damned tinge of cruel innocence, and insane knowing. Her eyes were dead as well. Manah smiled at Momma, a smile of cruel amusement crossing her cherry blossom pink lips.

"Why! Why did you kill our last kitten!" Momma howled, grabbing her child by the shoulders. Manah looked at the pure midnight black kitten that was in her arms. Manah didn't kill the kitten to be cruel. Momma was planning to kill the kitten because the kitten was black. Black was the witches color. Momma was ready to taken the kitten to the Goddess's alter for a sacrifice. Manah kissed the kitten's furry little head.

"She was going to suffer. I broke her neck, fast and swift. Now she's useless." Manah sang rubbing the kitten's ears. Momma looked at the child dumbly. How did Manah know that Momma was going to kill the kitten as a sacrifice? Manah let out a childish giggle. The child kissed the kitten's forehead and rocked the dead kitten back and forth.

"See me grow wings and fly high. Passions will die, down below. I burn in the basin of fire. Watchers look on as they dance in their merciless sky! Watching me, watching you!" Manah sung. Her mother narrowed her eyes. How did that child know the Song of the Goddess? Momma had noticed in the passing months that Manah had often made the men Momma brought home leave within mere hours. Momma had also noted Manah's strange behavior, getting into trouble, causing havoc. Momma grabbed the child's shoulders. Manah grinned up at her child as her eyes glowed.

"A witch!" Momma screeched. Manah peered up at her mother, grinning mischievously. Momma eyes widened and smacked the child. Manah's eyes took on a dangerous look. Momma dropped the child's hands and ran from the house. Manah looked at her mother's retreating back and walked out the back door of their home. Seere was sitting below the cherry blossom tree. Manah looked at her brother as he looked through her sketch-book.

"I never blamed you, not once. And I never will. You always came for me. That's all that ever mattered. Good-bye, Seere." Manah whispered, tears pricking at her scarlet eyes. She gripped the kitten by the scruff of her neck and placed it under the stump where she once hid her sketch book. She turned away from Seere and made her way through the forest. Her density lay within the Empire. And once she got there, the Dark One would possess her body completely. And she would never bother to stop him. She would die in the end, by Seere's hand. Because the love the brother and sister shared – it was a great love, a love that would crush like a mace.

The daughter of a geisha and daughter of a marauder, her past was never known. No-one ever cared and no-one listened. In the past that was Manah's, no-one cared. All they saw was a little troublesome girl that deserved to be abused and hurt. The only person that could honestly ever understand was Seere, but he, of course, was deluded.

_Fukai ao no sekai kote meguri au_

_Kaze ga touri nuke ku_

_Mai orita masshiroi hane fuwari yurete_

_Oshimi naku kakegea nai anata wo tsutsumi tai_

_As suru hito mamoru chikara ryoute ni motteru haze_

* * *

_**Writheheart: Theories, theories, theories. You gotta love 'em! I didn't add the last part with Momma saying "Seere, I love only you" or meeting Caim because you have already seen that in the little videos clips. I didn't decide to put the rise of the Empire is either. I guess this mostly focused on Manah's possession, oh well. Anywho the songs are in Japanese.** **So, good bad or other wise? Like I said earlier, most of this is based on theories. So who do you want next? Caim, Furiae, Inuart, Arioch, Angelus, Leonard and / or Verdalet? Or shall I do the Black Empire Dragon? Nowe? Eris? Legna? Or someone else you love? Please send review, flames, criticism, all is appreciated. Yes, and I totally used Aeris quote from FFVII Advent Children. If you want a disclaimer look in my profile. **_


End file.
